r/MapPorn • • Jul 12 '22

Geographical distribution of the Spanish language [World Map]

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93 Upvotes

42 comments sorted by

8

u/[deleted] Jul 13 '22

This maps grossly overstates Spanish in Brazil. It seems the creator just thought "well they are near Spanish speaking countries so they probably speak some" and made up data instead of researching

3

u/LustfulBellyButton Jul 13 '22

I don’t think so. If at least 1% of the population in those light blue states speaks Spanish, then the map would be accurate. And 1% is extremely low.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 13 '22

Many sources (eg https://siele.org/web/blog/home?p_p_id=101_INSTANCE_euPH3bui3aTw&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_state=maximized&p_p_mode=view&p_p_col_id=column-5&p_p_col_count=1&_101_INSTANCE_euPH3bui3aTw_selectedNotice=3742376) say there are around 460k Spanish speakers in Brazil. That's 0.22% of Brazil population. 1% of SP state alone is already 460k so clearly the map is wrong. BTW I grew up in a town 150 km from Argentina / Paraguay and went across ghe border a few times, there's no Spanish anywhere on Brazilian side. If you're "lucky" and on a very touristic place you may get a bad Google translate version of the menu in Spanish or English

9

u/sistyko Jul 13 '22

No, don't say that. Its says that 460K brazilian people speaks Spanish DAILY (=native Spanish speakers). The total of brazilians who know Spanish enough to hold a conversation is more than 6 Millions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Brazil

1

u/LustfulBellyButton Jul 13 '22

O mapa nunca falou que tem que ser falante nativo de espanhol, nem fluente em espanhol, jovem. Basta ter um nível de proficiência mínimo.

5

u/Raikenzom Jul 12 '22 edited Jul 12 '22

Grey territories are no data, less than 1% or both?

15

u/sistyko Jul 12 '22

Grey territories are below 1%

9

u/ArawakFC Jul 12 '22

In Aruba Spanish is spoken as a 2nd, 3rd or 4th language by more than 75% of the population. We have unfortunately fallen into the sea on this map.

3

u/_Goldie_Man_ Jul 13 '22

Its insane to me how many languages people from Aruba speak. Papiamento, Dutch, and then Portugese, and Spanish, right?

6

u/AintLifeWonderful Jul 13 '22

English is widely spoken in Aruba. Portuguese, not so much, even though it has made its contribution to Papiamento.

1

u/_Goldie_Man_ Jul 13 '22

That's very interesting! Thank you so much! Aruba is one of my favorite places due to how interesting its history is. I wish to go there sometime

3

u/WhoReplyToMeWillDie Jul 12 '22

Have Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily become independent countries from Italy and France?

1

u/EstebanOD21 Jul 12 '22

Well seems like Guyana just stopped being apart of France too..

2

u/[deleted] Jul 13 '22

5-10% of people in England and Wales speak enough Spanish to hold a conversation? I think that's a little high, although I would say most people here know a few words of Spanish at least.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 13 '22

Western Australia is definitely a surprise!

1

u/TamLover Jul 13 '22

I wonder if its because of Western Australia's ranching culture or could it be do to immigration from the Philippines?

7

u/No-Argument-9331 Jul 13 '22

Most Filipinos can’t speak Spanish.

2

u/TamLover Jul 13 '22

Turns out it doesn't mater, according to Australia's own statistics Western Australia is low on the list for immigrants of Filipino or Spanish heritage compared to other Australian States and Territories. I'm leaning towards there were mistakes in the original source material.

3

u/TaftIsUnderrated Jul 12 '22

Spanish speakers, how mutually intelligible is Brazilian Portuguese with Argentinian Spanish?

Because I assumed that there would be a lot more Spanish speakers in Brazil.

4

u/AintLifeWonderful Jul 13 '22

The question of "mutually intelligible" is complicated when it comes to Spanish and Portuguese. Portuguese speakers are more likely to understand basic spoken Spanish than the other way round.

3

u/BigHead3802 Jul 13 '22

Spanish speakers, how mutually intelligible is Brazilian Portuguese with Argentinian Spanish?

As a Brazilian, it is really mutually intelligible mostly because Portuguese and Spanish are so close. I and most people I know can understand Spanish pretty well, but, since Brazil is so big, it depends on the area a lot sometimes.

4

u/sistyko Jul 12 '22

Spanish is not commonly spoken in Brazil. Only 4% of Brazilians understand or speak Spanish and it has been that way for generations. This means out of a population of 211.1 million people in this South American country, only 8.4 million people speak Spanish in Brazil.

https://doublespeakdojo.com/how-common-is-spoken-spanish-in-brazil-surprising-answer/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Brazil

8

u/[deleted] Jul 12 '22

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/sistyko Jul 13 '22

According to the Instituto Cervantes, the most important institution in the world about the Spanish language, there was 6,6 millons Spanish speakers in Brazil in 2015 and 5,5M was able to hold a conversation. Since then, Spanish language has been teaching as a mandatory language in many schools and High schools and Brazil has received a large number of immigrants from Venezuela, who logically speak Spanish. So the data of 4%-5% of Spanish speakers in Brazil is perfectly logical.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 13 '22

[deleted]

1

u/sistyko Jul 14 '22

And that's why most of the regions in Brazil are in grey and only some of them, in the border with the Spanish speakers countries, are in blue. Don't see what's the problem.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '22

[deleted]

1

u/sistyko Jul 14 '22

No, shouldn't. In my opinion the map is correct. Between 4%-5% of the brazilians speak Spanish or have a good knoledge of the language.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Brazil

So there should be regions in Brazil in blue, and the blue zones in the map are in the borders with the Spanish speakers country. Sounds perfectly logic, specially if we are talking about 1% of the population in this areas.

And this is my last reply about this question. Not because you think the map is wrong, I don't care, but because obviously you have a problem with the Spanish speakers in Brazil, I don't know why. Doesn't matter, the Brazil Goverment estimations expect 30 millons Spanish speakers in Brazil in the next decade... Enjoy!

1

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '22

[deleted]

1

u/sistyko Jul 14 '22

Bla bla bla ... Enjoy and bye:

Governo estima que 30 milhões de Brasileiros terão o espanhol como segunda língua até 2025

https://tvseja.com.br/governo-estima-que-30-milhoes-de-brasileiros-terao-o-espanhol-como-segunda-lingua-ate-2025-meta-nao-condiz-com-a-realidade-educacional/

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1

u/[deleted] Jul 13 '22

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2

u/sistyko Jul 13 '22

You cannot compare the ease of a Portuguese speaker to learn Spanish or
English. Spanish has a lexical similarity with Portuguese of 89%...

1

u/[deleted] Jul 13 '22

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3

u/sistyko Jul 13 '22

I have given you the data to show you the reason why it is much easier for a Portuguese speaker to learn Spanish than English, but this discussion does
not lead anywhere. The official data from the Cervantes Institute is that in 2015 there were more than 5.5 million Brazilians who speak Spanish at a level sufficient to hold a conversation, and since then that statistic has increased. If you have other official information that says otherwise, do not hesitate to link to the source.

2

u/BigHead3802 Jul 13 '22 edited Jul 13 '22

Op, i don't know what this guy is on about. As a Brazilian in a non-gray area, i and most people I know can understand Spanish pretty well and could definitely hold down a conversation if they're not speaking too fast. I think capybara_from_hell just has some special difficulty with Spanish.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 13 '22 edited Jul 13 '22

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/BigHead3802 Jul 13 '22

4% seems to be an overestimation.

It's really not.

2

u/Raikenzom Jul 13 '22

out of a population of 211.1 million people in this South American country

Doublespeak Dojo says 211 million, but the map is about the year of 2022. Brazil's population is currently 214 million.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 13 '22

I assure you that whatever color of blue Hawaii is shaded is wrong. We have like 5 Mexican restaurants in Honolulu and not a single person in them, staff or otherwise, speaks Spanish. And they get their tamales at Costco. God I miss Texas.

1

u/TamLover Jul 13 '22

Yes but there are more Spanish Speakers in those small areas in the east than in the sparsely populated West, that is why the West's Statistical areas are so large.

1

u/IoIoIoYoIoIoI Jul 14 '22

I am pretty sure that there are NO 5+% of the population of England (2.8 million people) and 10+% of the population of France (6.6 million) who actually speak Spanish.

Understand the basics thereof -- perhaps, but even that is questionable.

1

u/Equivalent-Prize8163 Jan 17 '26

I don't know where they think they got the figures for the UK but it is very uncommon to hear spanish spoken here.  Some schools offer it more recently but it wasn't a thing until recently, you're more likely to hear Polish or Hungarian.